(The following article is from the March 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Clarence Torcoran

Worldwide job losses from the recession that started in the United States could hit a staggering 50 million by the end of 2009, according to the International Labor Organization.

     High unemployment rates, especially among young workers, have led to protests in countries as varied as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria, Iceland, and the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, and contributed to strikes in Britain and France. Unemployment in Britain is expected to rise to 9.5 percent by the middle of 2010, from 6.3 percent now, according to Peter Dixon, an economist with Commerzbank in London. Germany's jobless rate could rise to 10.5 percent from 7.8 percent, he added.

     The government of Iceland, where the economy is expected to shrink 10 percent this year, collapsed and the prime minister moved up elections after weeks of protests against soaring unemployment and rising prices. Pro-capitalist forces in Eastern Europe fear that the crisis might further weaken support for their "free-market" policies.

     Meanwhile, the new United States director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told Congress that instability caused by the global economic crisis had become the biggest security threat facing the United States, outpacing terrorism. The slowdown has already claimed 3.6 million jobs in the United States.

     The International Monetary Fund expects that by the end of 2009 year, the developed capitalist countries will see a two percent economic decline.

     In Asia, relief at having escaped losses on U.S. subprime debt has been erased by a plunge in sales among major exporters. On Feb. 11, Pioneer of Japan said it would abandon the flat-screen TV business and cut 10,000 jobs worldwide in response to sagging demand for consumer electronics.

     Millions of migrant workers in mainland China are searching for jobs as factories shut down. In Taiwan, exports were down 42.9 percent in January, compared with a year ago, the steepest plunge in Asia.

     Here in Canada, an estimated 213,000 jobs have been lost since last October, when the Harper Tories were still claiming that the economy was "fundamentally sound." This includes a record one-month decline of 129,000 in January. The biggest hits have come in the manufacturing sector, which has already seen one in seven jobs wiped out over the last five years.

     One sign of the changing times is the rising layoff of migrant workers. In Alberta, many businesses have imported skilled and unskilled foreign workers in recent years. There were 37,527 temporary foreign workers in Alberta in 2007, according to the most recent government data. Now, these workers are usually the first to be laid off.

     "The sky has started to fall on all construction workers in Alberta, but it's fallen first and fastest on the temporary foreign workers. There's no doubt," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

     The Centre for Newcomers in Calgary has been hearing from anxious temporary foreign workers since the Alberta economy started to go downhill, said Renato Abanto, who co-ordinates the centre's temporary foreign worker settlement program.

     "They don't have a source of income. They cannot pay the rent. They don't have food, so sometimes what we do is we refer them to the food bank or some housing agencies," Abanto said.

     Some workers are simply cutting their losses and going back home. Under Canada's temporary foreign worker program, employers are required to pay the plane fare home for unskilled labourers who have been let go, but not for skilled engineers, designers and other professions.